So I signed up for Botany at the beginning of the semester, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. I was just taking the class because it's required for Biology majors at Bethel. I'm more of an animal person than I am a plant person, but I heard classes at USFQ are easier than most in the states, so I thought it couldn't be that bad. Well. I was wrong. The lecture part of the class isn't bad. Pretty easy to follow and there's a lot of overlap with Virus, Bacteria, and Higher Cells and Ecology, which are both classes that I took last semester. The part that sucked more than a vacuum was the lab portion. Three hours every Monday. And when I say 3 hours, I mean that's how much time the class was scheduled for. How long was I actually there every week? Around 3 and a half hours. Now maybe I've been spoiled because Jon Piper's labs NEVER take all three hours, but I think it's more than that. There is only one other gringa in the class. She's cool, but she's the only one I really know. Also, the lab consists of our professor, Vlastimil (Vlasti), talking super fast for like a hour and a half and showing us fruits, nuts, and leaves. Then we spend like two hours drawing and labeling diagrams of everything he just showed us. Chevere (heavy sarcasm). And the lab homework sucks, too. He asks us to answer really specific and difficult-to-find questions that are even harder to answer because A. I'm searching in Spanish, or B. I have to translate what I find into Spanish. For about a month I hated that lab with a passion and dreaded every minute of it. Then I found out we had a lab field trip and as impossible as it might be to believe, I dreaded that even more. I had heard rumors that we had homework every night, had to write a report, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning doing work, and had to take a test before we left. Not the kind of field trip I want to go on. Plus, we have to pay our own way.
So the date of the trip approaches. Friday, February 18. 1:00 PM. Doomsday. We all payed $50.50 in advance for housing, transportation, and meals. Not too bad, I guess. We meet in Vlasti's office, and I realize I've left my jacket at home. Vlasti says it gets cold where we're going. I know...I'm in the future also. (Mike Birbiglia reference. If you've never heard of him, Youtube him) We get on the bus, and end up sitting there for about 45 minutes, waiting for one of our classmates. Ecuadorian time. Then we head out. I'm sitting next to the other gringa, Beth, and we're both freaking out. This class is hard for both of us. More so for her because (I know this may be hard to fathom) she's more of a perfectionist than I am. We drive for about an hour and a half towards the South and get into the mountains a little bit. Then we get out and Vlasti proceeds to show us plants for an hour. He tells us what family it comes from, what the characteristics of the family are, and what are some examples of plants in that family. We then have time to collect some plants because we have to collect 20 plants by the end of the semester. Get back in the bus, drive 20 minutes, and then have another hour to an hour and a half teaching session. It's actually kind of interesting because of how structured the information is. I feel like I'm actually learning something. But by then it was getting chilly and I was losing patience. It got dark so we headed back to the bus and drove for 2 more bumpy, zig-zaggy hours until we reached our hostal in Guajalito (picture super rustic). There's one huge room that like 24 of us sleep in (boys and girls). The beds don't have sheets, which I wasn't prepared for, but Beth is nice and lets me borrow her blanket (and one of her coats for that matter). She is obviously a better packer than I am. We get our stuff off the bus and take our plants we collected to the patio. Vlasti shows us how to lay them out in newspaper so they dry well and then we get to work. I had to throw some of mine out because they already had enough copies in the herbarium or I didn't have a copy of the plant. You have to have a plant and a copy of the plant in case one herbarium burns down. Haha. Anyway, I had one plant that worked, so I got that done. Then we worked on our "report." When I had heard "report" I thought we were writing a paper. Turns out all we had to do was copy down the family name, the characteristics, and examples. All the information was already given to us by Vlasti. Not too bad. By the time we finished, it was like 10:00 PM and we hadn't eaten supper yet. Went to the kitchen and had a three course meal. Soup, spaghetti, and dessert. And all you can eat. I sat with Beth, Ana (a girl who studied in Texas for a year), and David (a 19-year-old who looks like he's actually the oldest kid in the class). People started clearing out, but since the four of us were the last to get our food, we hung in the kitchen for awhile. Our lab assistant, Pablo, joined our conversation too. He doesn't actually go to USFQ, but goes to a different college in Tumbaco. He just comes to be our lab assistant. We talked a lot about America and Ecuador, similarities and differences. Good times. Finally, around midnight, we headed to bed.
Saturday. Breakfast was sandwiches. Ham and cheese, or cheese and jam, or PEANUT BUTTER and jelly. And scrambled eggs. All you can eat. I probably took advantage of that too much this weekend. Then we packed our lunches and headed out on our hike. Started on the rocky/grassy hill, and ended up hard core in the middle of the cloud forest. Saw a lot of cool plants, but after awhile, everything just started to look green and I couldn't make head or tails of what I was looking at. And I couldn't keep all the families straight. It was still interesting, and dirty, and fun. Stopped at a river on the way back. It was super cold, but I put my feet in anyway. Then it was back to camp to dry our collected plants. Beth and I walked back with Pablo, who doesn't speak any English. He said he wanted to learn, so he asked us how to say things and we would tell him, but pronouncing the words correctly was pretty hard for him. Entertaining for us. Haha. Got back to the hostal where Pablo helped us lay out the rest of our collected plants. Ate supper. Worked on our "report" and headed to bed around 1:30 AM.
Sunday. Breakfast of all-you-can-eat sandwiches again. Freaked out about the test we were about to take. Vlasti set out 20 plants around the hostal grounds. We had 3 minutes at each station to identify the family of the plant with the help of our report. Some of them I knew right away, but it was a really hard test. I think a lot of other people struggled as well, though. The test and the report together were worth 15 points. Vlasti let us decide how much to make each worth. Test: 3. Report: 12. I can handle that. Then we had lunch with our typical mealtime table group: Beth, Ana, David, and Richard (also speaks English. Soft-spoken, but very nice). Packed up the bus. Got home at 5:00 on Sunday. What I thought was going to be the worst weekend of my life ended up being one of the best. Not kidding. I wanted to go back. I had been so focused on how much work the trip was going to be, and I hadn't even considered how much fun it would be to interact with people. It's hard to blog about conversations and interactions with people, so I might not be very convincing when I say this, but I. Made. Ecuadorian. Friends. And it was glorious. Ana, Pablo, David, and kind of Richard. Haha. Let me tell you. Having Ecuadorian friends makes all the difference in the world. I mean, it's not like I have their numbers or we hang out outside of class, but they're still my friends. You come to another country, but until you've made native friends, the trip doesn't have quite the same meaning. All of a sudden, my time here felt more meaningful. Those are the best words I can come up with right now.
I was on a Botany high. The true test was the next day. Lab. Vlasti said it would be an extra long one. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. I left at 6:30, but you know what? I didn't even care, because I have friends in that class. Yeah, that's right. Friends that help me understand what I'm not getting. Friends like Ana who rode the bus home with me after lab that day and we talked about boys. Haha. Connections like that. With Ecuadorians. Priceless.
Botany. You're not so bad after all.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Rio Muchacho
Last weekend (Feb 11-14) we had another BCA sponsored trip. Left Quito on Thursday at midnight on our own private bus. There were enough seats, thankfully, that we each had two seats on which to "stretch out." I think I managed to sleep some. The trip was rocky, but I guess I was tired enough. Arrived at the beach in Cuenca at 7:30 AM. Cloudy, but comfortable. Had the place to ourselves for awhile. The last time I actually swam in an ocean or other body of water that produced substantial waves was back in 1999 at the Mediterranean Sea. Needless to say, I was excited. Changed into our swimsuits on the bus and headed down to the Pacific. While a majority of the group was complaining about it being cloudy at the beach, I was busy dodging waves in the ocean. Fun stuff. Walked along the beach with Julie and found some shells. Swam some more. Walked to some cliffs near the ocean with Ashley, Wesley, Julie, and Rachele. Played some Ecuavolley with the locals. Ecuavolley is volleyball played with a rock hard soccer ball. I wasn't very good. Then we strolled the city streets and bought Magnum ice cream bars. I don't know if they have that brand in the states, but all of us BCAers are crazy about Magnums. By 1:00 the sun came out so we got the real deal beach experience. Problem was that I hadn't put on sunscreen earlier because it was cloudy. Yep. Dumb gringa. Burnt to a crisp. Let me tell you, you haven't been burnt until you have been burnt by the equatorial sun. I could sit outside all day back home in Kansas on the summer equinox and my legs and feet would never burn. Here, crispy. Learned my lesson. It was low tide in the afternoon, so I walked around and found some more shells. Little side note: I love the beach, but one problem I have with it is that afterwards you never feel like you are completely free of sand. Blech. Left at 3:00 to head out to Rio Muchacho.
Bus could only go so far so we got out, crossed a river, and hopped into some pick-up trucks. Those could only go so far so we got out, crossed another river, loaded our stuff into one pick-up truck, and then watched it drive away as we hiked a good mile and a half in rubber boots to the finca organica (organic farm). We got there and got settled into our cabins. There were 10 of us in one. Four bunk beds pushed together on one wall, two single beds, and then two more up in the loft. There were windows and doors on the cabin, but the building wasn't completely enclosed. There were large open gaps in the wall near the ceiling. Kinda cool, open atmosphere. The place in general reminded me a lot of camp. They rang a hand bell for us to gather for supper. The bathrooms were outside. Cabins (although the one's here had electricity and were a little more spacious). Bugs. Chores. Dish duty. Hot. Humid. They served us supper cafeteria line style. We ate out of clay bowls. Our cups and spoons were made out of the shells of some inedible fruit. The comida (food) here was vegetarian. I've said before that I could never be a vegetarian, but for three days and with the quality of food they served us here, I survived easily. After supper I was on dish duty. Definitely not as sanitary as Camp Mennoscah, but they've got their own system. All the food scraps are saved and given to the pigs. After that, we listened to a little introduction about Rio Muchacho, what it's purpose is and such. Not going to lie, it was a long day and I'm pretty sure none of us were paying complete attention. The rest of the night we had free time. We all spent it getting ready for bed. The showers lacked cold water and all our products had to be biodegradable. No one had biodegradable shampoo, so we washed our hair with soap. Nasty. I think we were all in bed before 9. Since the cabin was open, there were bugs. I guess people aren't used to sleeping with bugs, so there was a lot of freaking out. People slept with t-shirts covering their faces, some were too scared to even sleep under the covers, etc. For me, it was just another night at camp.
Woke up at 6 for chores. Me and Katlin were on pig duty. We shoveled all the poop into trenches and then moved the poop through the trenches until we had it heaped in this one area. From there, they sprinkle chicken feed in the poop and let the "chicken tractor" go to work. The chickens come and eat the seeds, then find the grubs, and scratch up the poop in the meantime, doing a very good job of oxygenating the compost. Then we fed the pigs. They get molasses water first and then their grains. Not going to lie, it was kind of fun. Wouldn't want to do it everyday, but it wasn't bad. Breakfast consisted of fresh-cut fruit with granola and yucca bread. Then we toured the farm. It's a pretty cool place. They don't farm to make money and sell products, they farm to sustain themselves. They use EVERYTHING. The poop from every single animal, yes, even humans, is used in fertilization. They don't produce trash. They plant crops to complement the season and the earth. Rainy season plants are different from dry season plants. They don't plant the same crop in the same place two years in a row because that drains the nutrients from the soil and that's why commercial farmers have to use fertilizers and chemicals. Pretty cool stuff. Lunch. Then we split into two groups. Half of us went to the workshop and made a ring out of a palm nut, and the other half walked to the biggest tree in the area. It's actually a strangler fig that gets planted in another tree and then "strangles" the tree and other closely surrounding trees. Came back. Supper. Then we made homemade chocolate out of cacao beans and crystallized molasses. We ate it fresh and goopy on some pineapple. Delicious. Bed by 9:30.
No chores Sunday morning for our cabin. Breakfast. Then we went to the garden to collect banana leaves AKA our lunch boxes. We wrapped our lunch in the leaves after we dried them over a fire and cut them. Biodegradable. Cool stuff. Then we headed out for our hike. We hiked to what our guide called a "loma," which means small hill. On our way, we crossed 20 some rivers and walked through shin deep mud for half a mile uphill (both ways...haha). We stopped to eat our lunch and then headed onward. Remember when I said this thing was called a loma? Yeah, well turns out there was something lost in translation because this was a freaking mountain. It's as steep as the Mamba I bet, for those of you who have visited the wonderful place called Worlds of Fun and ridden the beastly Mamba. Craziness. The purpose of the mountain hike was to find howler monkeys. No luck. Spent and hour wandering up and around this mountain. Oh well, it was a fun hike anyway. Then it was back to the finca. The entire trip from start to end probably took us 7 hours. We were exhausted. Shower, supper, card games, bed by 10.
No chores again. Breakfast. Packed up our stuff. Walked to the Rio Muchacho school where they incorporate organic farming into the curriculum to educate the kids about ways they can protect the earth and provide for themselves. Not going to lie again. We were all ready to leave by that point, so trying to listen to a guy talk in Spanish about the school was difficult. Crossed more rivers, rode in pick-up trucks, and finally made it to the bus. Headed home. Made a stop on the way, bought some oritos (baby bananas) and pan de yucca, and then were treated to ice cream by Daniel (Magnum of course). Arrived in Quito around 5. Went home and the first thing I did was take a shower. It took three repeats of shampoo to get the biodegradable soap out of my hair. Felt really clean for the first time in 4 days. Whew. What an experience. Built a lot of character.
Next up: Botany field trip.
Lizzie
The beach:
The chicken tractor:
Manchita:
This little dalmatian puppy lives at Rio Muchacho and is quite possible the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Her name is Mancha (Spot) and she is clumsy as heck. The first time I saw her, she ran towards me and tripped up the steps. She also liked to run around trees and bite at the plants around the base. So cute!
The tree:
Bus could only go so far so we got out, crossed a river, and hopped into some pick-up trucks. Those could only go so far so we got out, crossed another river, loaded our stuff into one pick-up truck, and then watched it drive away as we hiked a good mile and a half in rubber boots to the finca organica (organic farm). We got there and got settled into our cabins. There were 10 of us in one. Four bunk beds pushed together on one wall, two single beds, and then two more up in the loft. There were windows and doors on the cabin, but the building wasn't completely enclosed. There were large open gaps in the wall near the ceiling. Kinda cool, open atmosphere. The place in general reminded me a lot of camp. They rang a hand bell for us to gather for supper. The bathrooms were outside. Cabins (although the one's here had electricity and were a little more spacious). Bugs. Chores. Dish duty. Hot. Humid. They served us supper cafeteria line style. We ate out of clay bowls. Our cups and spoons were made out of the shells of some inedible fruit. The comida (food) here was vegetarian. I've said before that I could never be a vegetarian, but for three days and with the quality of food they served us here, I survived easily. After supper I was on dish duty. Definitely not as sanitary as Camp Mennoscah, but they've got their own system. All the food scraps are saved and given to the pigs. After that, we listened to a little introduction about Rio Muchacho, what it's purpose is and such. Not going to lie, it was a long day and I'm pretty sure none of us were paying complete attention. The rest of the night we had free time. We all spent it getting ready for bed. The showers lacked cold water and all our products had to be biodegradable. No one had biodegradable shampoo, so we washed our hair with soap. Nasty. I think we were all in bed before 9. Since the cabin was open, there were bugs. I guess people aren't used to sleeping with bugs, so there was a lot of freaking out. People slept with t-shirts covering their faces, some were too scared to even sleep under the covers, etc. For me, it was just another night at camp.
Woke up at 6 for chores. Me and Katlin were on pig duty. We shoveled all the poop into trenches and then moved the poop through the trenches until we had it heaped in this one area. From there, they sprinkle chicken feed in the poop and let the "chicken tractor" go to work. The chickens come and eat the seeds, then find the grubs, and scratch up the poop in the meantime, doing a very good job of oxygenating the compost. Then we fed the pigs. They get molasses water first and then their grains. Not going to lie, it was kind of fun. Wouldn't want to do it everyday, but it wasn't bad. Breakfast consisted of fresh-cut fruit with granola and yucca bread. Then we toured the farm. It's a pretty cool place. They don't farm to make money and sell products, they farm to sustain themselves. They use EVERYTHING. The poop from every single animal, yes, even humans, is used in fertilization. They don't produce trash. They plant crops to complement the season and the earth. Rainy season plants are different from dry season plants. They don't plant the same crop in the same place two years in a row because that drains the nutrients from the soil and that's why commercial farmers have to use fertilizers and chemicals. Pretty cool stuff. Lunch. Then we split into two groups. Half of us went to the workshop and made a ring out of a palm nut, and the other half walked to the biggest tree in the area. It's actually a strangler fig that gets planted in another tree and then "strangles" the tree and other closely surrounding trees. Came back. Supper. Then we made homemade chocolate out of cacao beans and crystallized molasses. We ate it fresh and goopy on some pineapple. Delicious. Bed by 9:30.
No chores Sunday morning for our cabin. Breakfast. Then we went to the garden to collect banana leaves AKA our lunch boxes. We wrapped our lunch in the leaves after we dried them over a fire and cut them. Biodegradable. Cool stuff. Then we headed out for our hike. We hiked to what our guide called a "loma," which means small hill. On our way, we crossed 20 some rivers and walked through shin deep mud for half a mile uphill (both ways...haha). We stopped to eat our lunch and then headed onward. Remember when I said this thing was called a loma? Yeah, well turns out there was something lost in translation because this was a freaking mountain. It's as steep as the Mamba I bet, for those of you who have visited the wonderful place called Worlds of Fun and ridden the beastly Mamba. Craziness. The purpose of the mountain hike was to find howler monkeys. No luck. Spent and hour wandering up and around this mountain. Oh well, it was a fun hike anyway. Then it was back to the finca. The entire trip from start to end probably took us 7 hours. We were exhausted. Shower, supper, card games, bed by 10.
No chores again. Breakfast. Packed up our stuff. Walked to the Rio Muchacho school where they incorporate organic farming into the curriculum to educate the kids about ways they can protect the earth and provide for themselves. Not going to lie again. We were all ready to leave by that point, so trying to listen to a guy talk in Spanish about the school was difficult. Crossed more rivers, rode in pick-up trucks, and finally made it to the bus. Headed home. Made a stop on the way, bought some oritos (baby bananas) and pan de yucca, and then were treated to ice cream by Daniel (Magnum of course). Arrived in Quito around 5. Went home and the first thing I did was take a shower. It took three repeats of shampoo to get the biodegradable soap out of my hair. Felt really clean for the first time in 4 days. Whew. What an experience. Built a lot of character.
Next up: Botany field trip.
Lizzie
The beach:
The tree:
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wesley's Birthday and the Super Bowl
Wesley's birthday was this past Monday, the 7th, but she wanted to have her big celebration Saturday because we're "responsible people who can't go out on Monday night because we have class on Tuesday." Haha. She's so cute. So we spend all day trying to get her birthday plans figured out and things are complicated by the fact that Wesley dropped her phone in a puddle of water. A puddle that only existed because some guy was washing his car. So, for a majority of Saturday her phone was sitting, nonfunctional, in a bowl of rice. Complication was augmented by the fact that my phone was out of saldo (I didn't have any money on my phone). It was difficult to say the least. We got it figured out, though, and around 5:30, Ashley and I headed over to Wesley's house. Then we hung out and charlamos (chatted). Wesley's host parents are SUPER nice and SUPER awesome. They joined in on our conversation for awhile and I found out that the world is small even when you're thousands of miles from home. It turns out that Wesley's host mom studied for a year in high school in Goshen, Indiana. What are the odds. She lived with Doris Keim and her husband (I can't remember his name). They lived very near an Amish community, and she had lots of Mennonite friends. Haha. Crazy. So we talked about Amish and Mennonites...in Ecuador. We left Wesley's house around 8:30 and headed to a restaurant in la mariscal called La Chacha. This restaurant is owned by Galo who is in charge of the soccer volunteering. This restaurant helps fund all the projects he is involved in. The restaurant was closed for some restorations, but they opened it just for us. The restaurant is pretty small, but it has a nice, relaxing atmosphere. The 9 of us just chilled and chatted until the pizza was ready. Then Galo and Andres came out with a homemade chocolate cake. So good. When we were done at the restaurant, we headed over to La Oceana, which is a club nearby. There were 8 of us girls and Vince (aka "Beans" because when Spanish people try to pronounce Vince, it comes out sounding like "Beans." haha). The club tried to make Vince pay $5 to get in while the rest of us would be free, but we refused to go in unless they let him in for free as well. Can't argue with that. It was a nice club. They played a good mix of American and Spanish songs.
This is the new hot song in Ecuador: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zp1TbLFPp8
I'm going to try to memorize it. It'll be hard though, because part of it is in Portuguese.
Dancing isn't really my scene, but I have fun when I'm with a lot of friends. It's kinda nerve-wracking here in Ecuador, though, because random guys will try and dance with you and it's not like you can pre-screen them. So I danced with Wesley and Milijana, but some of the guys that snagged other friends of mine looked pretty nice. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to dance with an Ecuadorian after all. Gotta do it once while I'm here.
Sunday was spent doing a load of homework the size of Pichincha itself. Had to write my first Spanish essay for Advanced Spanish. It was about the movie La fiesta del Chivo, which documented some of the actions of the Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo. In his lifetime he was responsible for killing over 50,000 people. Disgusting. He ended up being assassinated, which you think would be a happy event, something that the rest of the country would approve of, but the army ended up hunting down and killing all of the assassins. So yeah, I did a lot of homework on Sunday. I had assumed that this country wouldn't broadcast the Super Bowl, but after a few people from the States asked me if I was going to watch it, I thought I would pursue the idea. Daniel said Sports Planet, a restaurant/bar in la mariscal would be showing it. I had to go. My Packers were playing. So me, Beans, and Kandi headed downtown and got to the bar right as the coin toss was happening. There were only three seats together left in the restaurant, which was fortunate. There were a lot of gringos there and they were doing a lot of drinking. They had these beer towers that held 3 gallons. People were buying those up like collectible Beanie Babies. They didn't really seem to be taking sides in terms of the game. The just chugged a beer every time someone scored. Beans and Kandi are both Steelers fans, so I had to step up my smack talking game since I was the only Packers fan. I didn't have to do much talking in the first half. I mean the game did the talking for itself. 21-10 at half, Packers. Halftime show was visually impressive. It was hard to hear the music, but I know they played some good songs, the catchy ones. And you've gotta like it when Usher makes a guest appearance and pulls out some dance moves like he did that night. Second half, the Packers didn't score at all in the third and I got a little nervous. I almost started freaking out when the Steelers got it to within three at 28-25, but the Packers held them off and became Super Bowl Champs 2011!!!!!!! Man, did that feel good, or what? Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the commercials here in Ecuador because they could only stream the game itself. But I watched them last night. There were some pretty good ones. The Ozzy-Bieber one was classic just for the sake that they called Justin Bieber a girl. I was also a big fan of the "Reply-All" one. Haha. But my favorite for the night was the Dr. House commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCB4YWPhNeI
Little twist Gregory House style on a classic commercial. Classic.
All in all it was a Super Bowl success. It was chevere to be able to feel some of that American atmosphere here in Quito and I'm glad I didn't miss out on seeing the Packer's victory.
We're headed out to the beach and then to an organic farm in Rio Muchacho. We leave tonight at midnight and come back Monday evening. I'm excited to take a little break from school.
Lizzie
This is the new hot song in Ecuador: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zp1TbLFPp8
I'm going to try to memorize it. It'll be hard though, because part of it is in Portuguese.
Dancing isn't really my scene, but I have fun when I'm with a lot of friends. It's kinda nerve-wracking here in Ecuador, though, because random guys will try and dance with you and it's not like you can pre-screen them. So I danced with Wesley and Milijana, but some of the guys that snagged other friends of mine looked pretty nice. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to dance with an Ecuadorian after all. Gotta do it once while I'm here.
Sunday was spent doing a load of homework the size of Pichincha itself. Had to write my first Spanish essay for Advanced Spanish. It was about the movie La fiesta del Chivo, which documented some of the actions of the Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo. In his lifetime he was responsible for killing over 50,000 people. Disgusting. He ended up being assassinated, which you think would be a happy event, something that the rest of the country would approve of, but the army ended up hunting down and killing all of the assassins. So yeah, I did a lot of homework on Sunday. I had assumed that this country wouldn't broadcast the Super Bowl, but after a few people from the States asked me if I was going to watch it, I thought I would pursue the idea. Daniel said Sports Planet, a restaurant/bar in la mariscal would be showing it. I had to go. My Packers were playing. So me, Beans, and Kandi headed downtown and got to the bar right as the coin toss was happening. There were only three seats together left in the restaurant, which was fortunate. There were a lot of gringos there and they were doing a lot of drinking. They had these beer towers that held 3 gallons. People were buying those up like collectible Beanie Babies. They didn't really seem to be taking sides in terms of the game. The just chugged a beer every time someone scored. Beans and Kandi are both Steelers fans, so I had to step up my smack talking game since I was the only Packers fan. I didn't have to do much talking in the first half. I mean the game did the talking for itself. 21-10 at half, Packers. Halftime show was visually impressive. It was hard to hear the music, but I know they played some good songs, the catchy ones. And you've gotta like it when Usher makes a guest appearance and pulls out some dance moves like he did that night. Second half, the Packers didn't score at all in the third and I got a little nervous. I almost started freaking out when the Steelers got it to within three at 28-25, but the Packers held them off and became Super Bowl Champs 2011!!!!!!! Man, did that feel good, or what? Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the commercials here in Ecuador because they could only stream the game itself. But I watched them last night. There were some pretty good ones. The Ozzy-Bieber one was classic just for the sake that they called Justin Bieber a girl. I was also a big fan of the "Reply-All" one. Haha. But my favorite for the night was the Dr. House commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCB4YWPhNeI
Little twist Gregory House style on a classic commercial. Classic.
All in all it was a Super Bowl success. It was chevere to be able to feel some of that American atmosphere here in Quito and I'm glad I didn't miss out on seeing the Packer's victory.
We're headed out to the beach and then to an organic farm in Rio Muchacho. We leave tonight at midnight and come back Monday evening. I'm excited to take a little break from school.
Lizzie
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Quito tour, family introductions, and self-discovery
Sorry it's been a while, folks. With homework and volunteering it's hard to find time to add to my blog. Hopefully this one will be entertaining enough to reward you all for waiting so patiently.
Saturday. Had plans to go to the Teleferico which takes you to the top of Pichincha. Woke up at 8:15 and it was cloudy. Checked Facebook and our group's consensus was to save it for another weekend because it's not worth the money to go up if all you can see is clouds. Went back to bed without resetting my alarm thinking I wouldn't be able to sleep much more, but the next thing I know it's 11:30. Haha. Ate breakfast because it was sitting out there for me. Then at 12:30 we went to a market near the Japanese Embassy where my mom works. Bought some fruit. Ate a typical Ecuadorian meal with juice. I was about ready to explode. Two meals in two hours. Guess that's my fault though. While we were sitting there eating, we randomly encountered two of mis "primos" AKA cousins who walked up to our table to say hello. I don't remember the name of the older one, but the younger one is Samuel (3 or something like that). They were out at the market with their parents (my mom's sister and brother-in-law). They were sitting across the eating area from us, but my mom didn't bother to walk over and say hi. She later told me that that sister is "media rara" or kind of strange. That might have something to do with it. After we ate we picked up some veggies and my mom bought me some sugar coated nuts or beans of some sort. I was pretty full, but I didn't want to be rude so I ate them. Delicious. Headed home and unloaded the car. Then mami and I went to her other sister's house. That's where I met my other two primos, Nicolas (7) and Ignacio (6). They have such a beautiful and spacious apartment and the kids are absolutely a-dorable. They are HUGE soccer fans so we spent some time watching a game on TV and then we went out into the hallway and played. It was so cute because when mami told them I was a futbolista, Ignacio was like "You have to coach me!" (in Spanish of course). Haha. Nicolas wanted to watch Monsters Inc., but Ignacio and I played for a while until we had to leave. He beat me 12-11. Close game. I'll get him next time.
On the way home mami dropped me off at Julie's apartment where she, me, and Ashley took the Ecovia to the historical district for our night tour. We started in La Iglesia de San Francisco, the church that the Devil supposedly helped to build. The one that's supposedly missing a brick that people spend their whole life looking for the hole in the facade. We get into the garden inside the convent of the church and there's a man waiting there for us in a black suit and cloak. He then introduces himself to us as the Devil and off we go on our tour. It's been a while so I can't remember everything he told us, but I remember that a lot of what he had to say was quite fascinating. We started with paintings, then sculptures, and then we spent a considerable amount of time talking about the Virgen de Panecillo. There's a large statue of her located on a hill in Quito that we saw the first week we were here, but the statue here in this church is much smaller and much more beautiful. They say this virgin is the most beautiful woman in Quito. Then it was off to another church (can't remember the name) that's located in the main plaza. With every transition of our tour, the Devil would lick his lips, give a deep chuckle, and then turn on his heels, cape flapping, and book it to the next location. They have a tomb in there dedicated to Garcia Moreno, a former president of Ecuador. Right before the people assassinated him, he said "Puedes matarme, pero Dios no muere." "You can kill me, but God doesn't die." Nobody has any idea exactly what he meant by that, but I think those are some pretty chevere famous last words. Then we climbed through the tiny hidden staircases that led us to the top of the church where we had quite the view of Quito at night. Increíble. Our tour ended at an old restaurant where we had hot chocolate and boscochos (flaky breadstick thingies). I'm not a big fan of hot chocolate, but this stuff was the best hot chocolate I've ever had. That doesn't mean I was crazy about it, but it was alright.
El Diablo:
Beautiful Quito at night:
Sunday. Met at Rio Coca station at 8:00. Headed out for our tour of South Quito. After about 45 minutes of driving in the bus we stopped at a lookout point that gave us a good view of South Quito. That's where we discussed the differences between the North and the South. Quito has grown immensely in the last 10 years. A lot of the growth happens in the South because that's the direction people come from and they don't bother to head farther north to find housing. That means when you get into the heart of South Quito, there isn't much space between houses, whereas the north has more space. Architectural design is different in the south. There are many unfinished buildings because people start building and then they run out of money. A lot of the roofs are flat tin roofs or flat concrete roofs that are practical because you can add on to a flat concrete roof. It's also a lot more colorful in the south in terms of house colors, many of which would be considered tacky in the north. People have gardens in their backyards and chickens on their front stoops. The farther south you go, the more livestock you find, too. The roads are all made of stones that the people had to lay down themselves. The government gave them the supplies and that was it. Crime rate is high in the south because people move to Quito and then can't find jobs so the only way to survive is to steal. The Panecillo sits on a hill in the middle of Quito and faces north. The people of South Quito would say the Panecillo is taking a dump on the south, which is very symbolic of the relationship between and the difference in the economic/social standing between the north and south.
My arts and crafts buddies:
It was on the way home that I had my self-discovery. Granted, a lot of my thoughts make sense in my head, but may not make sense written down. I will try my best though because it's something I feel like sharing. We were headed home on our private BCA bus when all of a sudden a dog ran right in front of us and our driver had no time to react. Bump. I was in no position to see exactly what we had run over. Judging by the reaction on the bus, there was the possibility that we had just run over a small child. When I found out it was just a dog, all I felt was relief. However, there were people on the bus who couldn't even stand to think about the fact that we had just run over a dog. All I could think to myself was "thank the Lord that wasn't a kid." That's when my brain started whirring and came to some very profound conclusions.
Because I didn't feel the same level of pain for that dog, does that mean I won't make a good vet? Is animal medicine really my calling in life? I reflected on this past month in Ecuador and discovered that even though I see a lot of street dogs, they don't seem to be suffering and I don't feel sorry for them. Sure, I hope their happy, but I'm not like "Oh, this breaks my heart." Some people in my program are like that and I think, does this make me a terrible candidate for being a veterinarian? For a split second, I thought "well, what else would I do with my life if I didn't work with animals?" and all I drew was a blank. That's when I concluded that this "indifference" of mine isn't a bad thing, but rather I can use it to my advantage. If I were to care deeply for every animal I treated as a vet or every animal I saw in the pound, my life would be horrible. My ability to distance myself, from getting too attached, will actually probably work in my favor. I don't want you all to think I'm a cold-hearted animal hater, because I'm definitely not. I mean what sort of animal hater would want to be a vet? I'm just realistic. No matter how many street dogs you rescue, there's always going to be more. It's like poverty; there's never going to be an end to it. Death happens. Sometimes you can't prevent it.
That's when I started to reflect on the importance of people on my life. Being here, in a another country, has showed me how incredible people can be. Especially this love-dominated culture in Ecuador. People. I don't know how else to explain how important people are. When I was younger, I used to put my pet right after my extended family and friends in terms of importance and whatnot. But I got to thinking on the bus, would I sacrifice the life of my beloved pet for the life of a complete stranger? This is a hypothetical situation. I don't know when I would ever have to make a decision like this, but without a doubt, right then and there, I knew the answer was yes. There's no way I could choose the life of an animal over that of a human. I had never actually faced this question directly, but I'm sure there were times as a child where I imagine I would have had to think long and hard about that question. But now, I know without a doubt, a complete stranger, an enemy, a person who may not even deserve this type of sacrifice, would take precedence over the life of any animal, yes, even my dog. I went through so many scenarios in my head. What if Hitler were still alive? Would I sacrifice Katy to keep Hitler alive? A man who was responsible for killing millions of innocent people? Yes. As bad as he was, I would sacrifice my own dog to keep him alive. As much as I love my dog (and I love her a lot), it would be a lot easier seeing a person and knowing a dog died for them rather than seeing a dog and knowing that I willingly chose the life of this animal over that of a human. Inside I pray that this was always the way I thought, but like I said, I was never really confronted with the question itself. Now I know where I stand. And it feels good. I hope that makes sense in writing.
"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."
- Alan Alda
Yeah. It was one of those days.
More later,
Lizzie
Saturday. Had plans to go to the Teleferico which takes you to the top of Pichincha. Woke up at 8:15 and it was cloudy. Checked Facebook and our group's consensus was to save it for another weekend because it's not worth the money to go up if all you can see is clouds. Went back to bed without resetting my alarm thinking I wouldn't be able to sleep much more, but the next thing I know it's 11:30. Haha. Ate breakfast because it was sitting out there for me. Then at 12:30 we went to a market near the Japanese Embassy where my mom works. Bought some fruit. Ate a typical Ecuadorian meal with juice. I was about ready to explode. Two meals in two hours. Guess that's my fault though. While we were sitting there eating, we randomly encountered two of mis "primos" AKA cousins who walked up to our table to say hello. I don't remember the name of the older one, but the younger one is Samuel (3 or something like that). They were out at the market with their parents (my mom's sister and brother-in-law). They were sitting across the eating area from us, but my mom didn't bother to walk over and say hi. She later told me that that sister is "media rara" or kind of strange. That might have something to do with it. After we ate we picked up some veggies and my mom bought me some sugar coated nuts or beans of some sort. I was pretty full, but I didn't want to be rude so I ate them. Delicious. Headed home and unloaded the car. Then mami and I went to her other sister's house. That's where I met my other two primos, Nicolas (7) and Ignacio (6). They have such a beautiful and spacious apartment and the kids are absolutely a-dorable. They are HUGE soccer fans so we spent some time watching a game on TV and then we went out into the hallway and played. It was so cute because when mami told them I was a futbolista, Ignacio was like "You have to coach me!" (in Spanish of course). Haha. Nicolas wanted to watch Monsters Inc., but Ignacio and I played for a while until we had to leave. He beat me 12-11. Close game. I'll get him next time.
On the way home mami dropped me off at Julie's apartment where she, me, and Ashley took the Ecovia to the historical district for our night tour. We started in La Iglesia de San Francisco, the church that the Devil supposedly helped to build. The one that's supposedly missing a brick that people spend their whole life looking for the hole in the facade. We get into the garden inside the convent of the church and there's a man waiting there for us in a black suit and cloak. He then introduces himself to us as the Devil and off we go on our tour. It's been a while so I can't remember everything he told us, but I remember that a lot of what he had to say was quite fascinating. We started with paintings, then sculptures, and then we spent a considerable amount of time talking about the Virgen de Panecillo. There's a large statue of her located on a hill in Quito that we saw the first week we were here, but the statue here in this church is much smaller and much more beautiful. They say this virgin is the most beautiful woman in Quito. Then it was off to another church (can't remember the name) that's located in the main plaza. With every transition of our tour, the Devil would lick his lips, give a deep chuckle, and then turn on his heels, cape flapping, and book it to the next location. They have a tomb in there dedicated to Garcia Moreno, a former president of Ecuador. Right before the people assassinated him, he said "Puedes matarme, pero Dios no muere." "You can kill me, but God doesn't die." Nobody has any idea exactly what he meant by that, but I think those are some pretty chevere famous last words. Then we climbed through the tiny hidden staircases that led us to the top of the church where we had quite the view of Quito at night. Increíble. Our tour ended at an old restaurant where we had hot chocolate and boscochos (flaky breadstick thingies). I'm not a big fan of hot chocolate, but this stuff was the best hot chocolate I've ever had. That doesn't mean I was crazy about it, but it was alright.
El Diablo:
Then we headed to a facility that houses a program that works with elderly people. We spent the first part of our time there getting to know the old folks and such. Then we were paired up and we made little baskets out of that thin, colorful foam stuff. At the beginning, the program director asked the old folks to raise their hand if they had ever had a conversation with a person from the United States. Practically nobody raised their hand. Now I don't want to go around thinking that those of us from the States are super awesome and everyone should have a conversation with us, but I just thought that there were enough estadounidenses to go around and that they would have made it to South Quito before. Guess not. The old folks said that gringos never take the time to go to the South because there's nothing to do and it's the poor part. It was sad to hear that. Ate lunch with them and then we headed home.
In South Quito looking north:
It was on the way home that I had my self-discovery. Granted, a lot of my thoughts make sense in my head, but may not make sense written down. I will try my best though because it's something I feel like sharing. We were headed home on our private BCA bus when all of a sudden a dog ran right in front of us and our driver had no time to react. Bump. I was in no position to see exactly what we had run over. Judging by the reaction on the bus, there was the possibility that we had just run over a small child. When I found out it was just a dog, all I felt was relief. However, there were people on the bus who couldn't even stand to think about the fact that we had just run over a dog. All I could think to myself was "thank the Lord that wasn't a kid." That's when my brain started whirring and came to some very profound conclusions.
Because I didn't feel the same level of pain for that dog, does that mean I won't make a good vet? Is animal medicine really my calling in life? I reflected on this past month in Ecuador and discovered that even though I see a lot of street dogs, they don't seem to be suffering and I don't feel sorry for them. Sure, I hope their happy, but I'm not like "Oh, this breaks my heart." Some people in my program are like that and I think, does this make me a terrible candidate for being a veterinarian? For a split second, I thought "well, what else would I do with my life if I didn't work with animals?" and all I drew was a blank. That's when I concluded that this "indifference" of mine isn't a bad thing, but rather I can use it to my advantage. If I were to care deeply for every animal I treated as a vet or every animal I saw in the pound, my life would be horrible. My ability to distance myself, from getting too attached, will actually probably work in my favor. I don't want you all to think I'm a cold-hearted animal hater, because I'm definitely not. I mean what sort of animal hater would want to be a vet? I'm just realistic. No matter how many street dogs you rescue, there's always going to be more. It's like poverty; there's never going to be an end to it. Death happens. Sometimes you can't prevent it.
That's when I started to reflect on the importance of people on my life. Being here, in a another country, has showed me how incredible people can be. Especially this love-dominated culture in Ecuador. People. I don't know how else to explain how important people are. When I was younger, I used to put my pet right after my extended family and friends in terms of importance and whatnot. But I got to thinking on the bus, would I sacrifice the life of my beloved pet for the life of a complete stranger? This is a hypothetical situation. I don't know when I would ever have to make a decision like this, but without a doubt, right then and there, I knew the answer was yes. There's no way I could choose the life of an animal over that of a human. I had never actually faced this question directly, but I'm sure there were times as a child where I imagine I would have had to think long and hard about that question. But now, I know without a doubt, a complete stranger, an enemy, a person who may not even deserve this type of sacrifice, would take precedence over the life of any animal, yes, even my dog. I went through so many scenarios in my head. What if Hitler were still alive? Would I sacrifice Katy to keep Hitler alive? A man who was responsible for killing millions of innocent people? Yes. As bad as he was, I would sacrifice my own dog to keep him alive. As much as I love my dog (and I love her a lot), it would be a lot easier seeing a person and knowing a dog died for them rather than seeing a dog and knowing that I willingly chose the life of this animal over that of a human. Inside I pray that this was always the way I thought, but like I said, I was never really confronted with the question itself. Now I know where I stand. And it feels good. I hope that makes sense in writing.
"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."
- Alan Alda
Yeah. It was one of those days.
More later,
Lizzie
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